Second Place, Non-Professional Japanese Embroidery
Judge’s Choice

This Japanese embroidery design was taken from a line drawing that my teacher, Shay Pendray, generously shared with her class. I changed some parts of the design but kept the basic format.

My aunt was an embroiderer and my uncle had purchased this piece of silk in India where he was posted in WWII. My aunt kept this special fabric in her stash and after her passing my cousin found it and gave it to me.

This delicate piece of silk is probably 80 years old and so I decided to stitch it carefully leaving as much of the ground fabric showing through the design as possible. I used a limited palette of colors, white, silver metallic and a touch of copper metallic to contrast and compliment the beauty of the ruby-red silk.

Traditional Japanese embroidery thread and stitches were used to complete the design.